25 percent of Illinois voters think state is headed in ‘right direction’

Starting in July, Illinois Policy Action has conducted enhanced voter ID canvassing across 20 key districts throughout Illinois. After 37,762 house-to-house door knocks by a team of 122 canvassers, followed up by over 430,000 automated and live phone calls to those homes not reached in person, we’ve produced a powerful barometer of Illinois’ political climate....

Voters were asked two key questions.

The first was “do you believe Illinois is heading in the right direction or the wrong direction?” Of the nearly half a million homes surveyed, 55.5 percent believed Illinois was headed in the wrong direction, and only 25.7 percent believed it was headed in the right direction (with 18.7 percent unsure).

Homes throughout Illinois were then asked if they “approve of the leadership and performance of Illinois’ political leaders.” Only 26.5 percent approved of the leadership, while an overwhelming 63.3 percent disapproved (with 10.1 percent unsure).

These results, sadly, aren’t too surprising.

Illinois’ political history is tarnished with corruption, unbalanced budgets, uncontrollable spending and unpaid bills. On Oct. 8, the Illinois comptroller updated the amount of unpaid bills to $5.3 billion. The state-funded pension systems (without health insurance included) have increased their unfunded liability to $97.5 billion. As a result, taxes have been dramatically increased and spending continues to rise.

These results show us that Illinois voters are completely opposed to the direction that Illinois is heading. Time will tell whether Illinoisans will demand different policy choices from its leaders.

Jim Long

25 percent of Illinois voters think state is headed in ‘right direction’

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